Hoof Cracks

How do cracks form?

Cracks can come from lots of different causes. Most cracks are from imbalances in the hoof or nutritional deficiencies causing weak horn production. Also any hair and skin condition is reflected in hoof horn. If the hair and skin are healthy, the hoof horn will be and the opposite is true. Iron in the water supply or supplements can be a contributing factor.Quarter CracksWhen the heels and bars are left high, they push forward and cause "quarter cracks". This is because the hoof wall at the back half of the hoof is attached to the lateral cartilages, while the front half of the hoof wall is attached to the coffin bone. The quarter crack at that juncture occurs due to excess horn in the back half of the foot pushing forward. This usually makes an inward vertical crack. If the horse's foot is naturally harder and contracted, this excess wall horn can fold under the foot. If it is a wide foot like a draft or draft cross, it can pull outward and stretch the attachment in the back half of the walls. If the horse has weak horn, the wall can start to bend and cause cracking all the way around. An inward toe crack can form when the heels and bars get high which tips the coffin bone up on its front edge.Sometimes if the horse lives in an environment of manure and wet, the ammonia from these wastes damages the white line horn and can increase any existing damage.A common farrier attempt at correcting a crack is like painting over the ceiling when the roof has a leak! The imbalances in the hoof, the health of the horn produced and the environment must all be addressed before cracks can be healed. The tubules must be aligned to grow directly towards the ground.

Toe Crack (front view)

This shows two farrier attempts to stop the crack that was forming due to the high heels and bars. The walls on this foot are overly divergent, stretching the laminar attachment and combined with the high heels, caused this crack.

Lateral view

This is a lateral view of the same foot. Although the heel doesn't look excessively high, the length of the bars and heels has pushed forward distorting the hoof capsule causing the excessive divergence and toe crack.

After rebalancing trim

Although this was the first trim, the coffin bone has better balance in the capsule.

After 3 months

Dynamite produced super shine and feet!

Corde with beautiful feet and hair coat with the use of Dynamite products in Mn.

Left front 10-16-2012

Wall cracks

This is a photo of one of my horses before I started the Strasser hoofcare course. The whole reason why I went to my first SHP workshop was because I was confounded that my farrier could never get these cracks to go away. As I was about to learn over the next few years, cracks can be difficult to fix. In this particular case, the hoof wall had flaring all around, and though the cracks were mainly superficial, that compromised the ability of the hoof to hold together and withstand the impact of the very large horse's weight.The first photo is from Sept 2005. The second is from Dec 2005The one below is from a year later. The one below this one is from 2012.

NEWS FLASH!! As always, more information has caused me to rethink WHY these problems arose in the first place. Now I know that IRON in my water supply was the major reason for these cracks! Although my trimming was a factor in helping them to heal, the main reason for these cracks was an imbalance in iron!

Before going north.

Corde photographed by Jen Thackery. She owned him for two years and he thrived in that climate.

I'm using a new trim method based on Bowker's research finding (that the outer layer of wall horn grows faster) and James Welz's idea of raising the coffin bone within the hoof capsule by rolling the walls and heels. So far, the horn appears thicker, which is one of the effects. These photos aren't the best but it's interesting that the color of the horn has more variation than it did in 2010.

But anhidrosis changed both Corde's skin and hoof health

I was amazed at how fast Corde's healthy coat went to rotten! When his winter coat seemed to refuse to let a summer one grow in, I tried another Dynamite product, SOD. His dull winter coat changed in just a few days to a lusterous, if somewhat thick, hair coat. His feet were equally healthy. I was delighted! Then he started getting hot. And it rained. And rained. And rained. His hair started falling out. then he started getting fungus like bumps. I tried a product that was supposed to fix his anhidrosis. It was a patch with two nodes supposed to equalize his electrolytes. It didn't work. His hair continued to fall out and his feet got worse.

corde's left rump July 2013

Quarter Cracks

Quarter cracks usually are a result of too much length of the back half of the walls and bars.

The bars and back half of the hoof have good circulation which leads to faster growth, while the front half of the foot is connected to the dorsal surface of the coffin bone and receives blood flow through the digital arteries coming thru openings in the coffin bone. If the heel gets high/long, or the bars get high/long, they tip the coffin bone forward on the toe, which essentially pinches the circulation thru the coffin bone by forcing it against the dorsal hoof wall.The first photo shows a hoof with a pretty deep quarter crack. These cracks are usually inward and begin with the outside layer of horn showing a crack all the way up to the coronet.Below that photo is one showing the same foot a few months into corrective trimming. The crack is growing out and the wall is resected to allow air and disinfectant treatment.The last photo shows the crack completely grown out.Below shows a 3 yr old with excess heel and bar horn causing a quarter crack. But the quarter crack is the least of this horse's problems!

Another Toe Crack in barefoot horse

Toe cracks usually form as a result of of the hoof having high/long bars and walls too. Similar to the first horse's foot with multiple cracks, this horse is a big horse and the wall has flaring all around. The curve in the medial wall can be seen clearly and that makes the foot weaker because the tubules in the hoof wall are bent. The remedy for this is again to keep the heels and bars from tipping the foot forward and rasping an angle to the wall, rolling the heels, to help the tubules re-align their growth toward the ground and be sure good nutrition is in place.